St Joseph’s Hospital Staff WFPB Program Website

January 2020

The purpose of this page is to introduce you to the importance of nutrition for your health and explain to you what is the healthiest diet.  Once you have reviewed the information on this website, you can decide if you are ready to make significant changes in your diet.  If you would like to participate in a 6 session small-group experience to assist in making the transition, please follow the link at the bottom of this page to the enrollment form.

The information on this page is structured in small ‘bite-sized’ pieces so that you can gradually work through the material as your time and schedule permits.

A good first question is, “Why should I care about nutrition ?” – see this 3 minute video for the answer:

Now let’s start by introducing you to the ONLY diet which has been shown to prevent, arrest, or reverse type 2 diabetes, and hypertension:

As this video illustrates, being healthy is something which we all have to take personal responsibility for.

Now let’s learn how to address the cause of the majority of heart disease (5 min) :

In Canada, over 50% of men and over 40% of women are overweight or obese.  This puts them at risk for diabetes – see this video for the solution (3 min):

Another major killer in Canada is Cancer – this 8 minute video tells you how not die from it (and tells you the relative roles of diet and exercise):

Hopefully by now you realise that the same diet achieves all of the above benefits.  It turns out that a whole food plant-based diet is effective in decreasing the likelihood of developing these disorders.  For more information, feel free to explore this website (overview here).

Please note that because this diet is highly effective it can actually sometimes reverse conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes making it very important for people with these conditions who are on medications to notify their physician who can then adjust the doses of their medications.  If this is not done there will be a risk of complications due to low blood pressure (eg fainting) or blood sugars (weakness).

Dr Ganguli, a gastroenterologist at St Joseph’s has volunteered to organise a 6 session series to help individuals to make these changes to their diet. These sessions will be held on Wednesdays from 12:00-12:50 pm at the Charlton site along with video conferencing available for King and West 5th campuses approximately twice per month.  You are welcome to bring your lunch and learn as well as share how you are trying to make these changes and get support and feedback from others trying to do the same.  The format will usually include a brief presentation followed by discussion and a chance to talk about how you are doing with the changes you are trying to make.

In order to ensure your safety, you will be asked to sign in to each session and acknowledge that you are aware that individuals on medications (especially those for blood pressure, heart conditions, and diabetes) need to notify their physician of the changes they are making so that appropriate adjustments in medications can be made.

A health assessment will be done through St Joseph’s Employee Wellness prior to joining the group with the option of reassessment afterwards if you so desire.  For more details visit MyStJoes > Employee Wellness > 15 Minutes to DIY Wellness.

To sign up for these sessions, please complete the form below (once we have enough people signed up, you will be notified of the start date and meeting location).

Please sign up here.  Participation will be on a first come first served basis.  If we have a higher than expected number of requests we may have to put some people on a waiting list for a future series of sessions.

Now, please start on your journey by exploring the rest of Dr Ganguli’s website (overview here).